


A Foil Character's Tale

by ItFeelsLikeHome



Series: Witnessing Robron [3]
Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Fluff, Gay Bar, Kissing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-02
Updated: 2018-03-29
Packaged: 2019-03-25 23:51:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13845648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ItFeelsLikeHome/pseuds/ItFeelsLikeHome
Summary: Alex and Mike witness Robert and Aaron's relationship in all it's wonderous glory.





	1. Alex Mason

He hadn’t thought about Aaron in months, not since he’d gone back to his mum’s house and shedded a few tears over a tub of Ben & Jerry’s, because he supposed eventually he knew the inevitable would happen. Alex had felt Aaron shielding his heart from getting too involved in whatever superficial relationship they were in. 

Aaron had constantly come across as surly and changing from hot to cold more times than a dodgy mixer tap. He wasn’t keeping Alex away from him at arm’s length but a whole acre length instead. This meant that despite Aaron’s protestations that he and Robert were only friends, Alex knew that at some point the ex-husbands would be more than friends yet again. The surliness had originally been an attraction and added to the sexy air that Aaron carried around with him, but he knew how difficult being with Aaron actually was. He’d made the effort, but Aaron’s heart never seemed fully in it. 

It wasn’t a surprise when he’d gone to the fairly new gay bar in Hotten - the one in which Aaron had ended their ‘thing’ - and seen Aaron again. Apart from the dark hair, stubble and those gorgeous blue eyes that Alex used to wish he could get lost in, Aaron looked a million times different to the person he used to be. The dim lights from the club flickered onto Aaron’s eyes, illuminating them and making them sparkle and dance. 

Aaron looked different: more assured, happier, more confident. Perhaps even taller, or maybe he was just holding his head higher, not letting worries weigh down his shoulders any more. He’d always be an attractive man, but this new air about him seemed to make him even more attractive. And by looking at the glances other men were giving Aaron, Alex knew he wasn’t the only one that found him fit. But Aaron was oblivious, always seemed to be, at how attractive he was. 

While Alex was waiting for his mates to get served at the bar, he couldn’t keep his eyes off Aaron. The grin that Aaron was displaying was the widest that he had ever seen it. 

Aaron strode over to the other side of the room, which meant that Alex had to shift position in his seat to see where Aaron was going. As Aaron was walking, a hand pulled on his and he spun around. The grin that had been displayed on Aaron’s face was nowhere near as big as the one that he was producing in response to whoever had pulled on his hand. Creases were displayed around his eyes and mouth, the folds of which were so deep that Alex didn’t need to shift his attention to find out who Aaron was looking at. 

Robert. 

The blond hair and blue shirt with elbow patches gave him away as well. 

They were talking animatedly, or as best they could against the loud music, whispering in each other’s ears. Each whisper resulted in the two of them getting closer and closer to each other, letting hands do what it was obvious their lips wanted to do. There was Aaron’s hand brushing up against Robert’s arm. Robert’s fingers grazing the arch of Aaron’s back. Aaron’s hand skimming Robert’s. Then Robert’s fingers caressing Aaron’s neck. And in those short moments between their whispering, a spark ignited into a fire. Alex could see it being stoked with each touch they gave one another until there was a passionate conflagration happening right in front of him. Well, as much as a passionate kiss could get in a room full of about 150 people. 

And, God, they were going at it. Eating each other’s faces off, not stopping for breath and not caring that the momentum they were gaining was causing a reaction from the rest of the bar’s clientele. 

It was then, as they were snogging like every fibre in their being depended on it, grabbing onto each other with such a ferocity, Alex knew Aaron was crazy about Robert. He’d never been kissed with that passion from Aaron. In fact, he had been rarely kissed by Aaron and before the end of their ‘thing’, they hadn’t slept together in a week. Perhaps that was because Aaron had been going through the motions, lying to himself and Alex that everything was fine when really all he wanted was Robert. 

The disco lights in the bar caught something on Aaron’s left hand - as his fingers splayed through Robert’s hair, grasping and tugging - making it sparkle in the darkened room. 

A ring. 

A ring on Aaron’s finger. Not any finger but his ring finger on his left hand. Well, that told him everything that he needed to know and Alex looked away. They’d gone back to being husbands pretending that the time Aaron had spent with him had not happened. He had been superfluous to requirements. A minor blip in the tumultuous love story of Aaron and Robert. A foil character to make the two of them realise that they needed to work on their relationship and get back together. 

At that moment his friends came back and he thought nothing else of it. Why concern himself with Aaron and Robert when their love had never worried about him being a casualty of it? 

However, that wasn’t the last he would see of Aaron and Robert in such a powerful embrace. Towards the end of the night, as he was waiting outside the bar for a taxi along with his friends, he heard heavy breathing and moaning and… 

No, it couldn’t be? Could it? Someone was getting their happy on down the alley by the side of the bar.

Either that or they were in a lot of pain.

No, it must have been pleasurable moans and groans because he suddenly heard a sigh followed by a breathy, ‘Robert.’

Perhaps he was imagining it, surely? Especially as he had seen Aaron and Robert all over each other earlier. He pushed the thought from his mind; however, he couldn’t push the sounds from his ears and neither could his friends. The five of them peeked around and had a look at the noises that seemed to be getting louder and louder. 

Yep, he was right. Two people were getting their happy on down a side alley, but he never realised who those two people would be. Aaron, body pressed against the cold, brick wall, stood with his back towards Robert. Trousers lowered to allow them ample room to get busy. Thrusts shaking the foundations of their world, if their facial expressions and the noises they were making were anything to go by. 

‘Get a hotel room, lads,’ one of Alex’s friends shouted and Alex had to duck his head out of the way before they could see him.

But he knew deep down why Aaron had ended it with him. He wasn’t Robert. The ecstasy on Aaron’s face as he was being pushed against the wall mixed with the way he glided weightlessly through the club, and the look on his face as he was talking to Robert, meant that Alex knew Aaron was back with his soulmate. 

Alex was okay with that because he could never deny anyone their true love.

He wondered when he would find his own and stop being a plot device in other people’s stories.


	2. Mike

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mike goes to The Steakhouse and sees the gorgeous Robert again.

Mike had never been to The Steak-House in Hotten before. If he was being honest, it wouldn’t have been his first choice. He didn’t like to call himself a food snob, but working as a chef meant that a basic steak and chips meal was boring. He needed something that enticed his palate and was an explosion of the senses, not the blandness and one-dimension of steak and chips. However, it wasn’t his leaving do, so he didn’t have a right to complain or even choose where they were going. 

Miranda was leaving the restaurant where they worked, and he was with a party of ten. His aim for the evening was to enjoy the company and have a fun time. Nothing else. 

The restaurant was dimly lit, atmospheric and cosy, which struck Alex as soon as he entered the restaurant. There were couples and group parties dotted around and their party was placed near the front of the restaurant and near the bar for those all-important drinks. 

Mike had an excellent view from his seat of any fit, hot men that walked into the restaurant. And, God damn it, that blond haired man that came in through the door was fit. Blue shirt, brown coat and a stride that was so flipping sexy. Not just fit, but gorgeous. 

Wait a second? The blond looked familiar. Tall, great thighs in those jeans and that arse to die for. He’d seen it all before. Squinting, Mike realised that Mr Hot-Stuff looked like the blond - Robert - that he had tried pulling about a month ago. The one that had seemed interested in going home with him; however, when it came to getting a taxi, he had used a lame excuse for not going back to Mike’s flat: something about having an early meeting the next morning, feeling too tired and wanting a good night’s sleep. 

Mike wasn’t stupid and knew as soon as they had walked away from ‘Aaron’ that Robert’s whole demeanour had changed. His eyes had taken on a misty, faraway gaze. The rather sullen look, which had been slapped across Robert’s face when the friendly red-head had first introduced them, seemed to have taken over his handsome features. There had been a dent between Robert’s eyebrows and Mike knew there was no point in going any further. 

Those looks were a gaping galaxy away from the gleaming smile Robert’s face was now displaying. His eyes twinkled with happiness and pleasure, but if you looked hard enough - and Mike liked looking at Robert, especially those refreshing blue-green eyes - there was a mischievous glint to his gaze, as though he was in the middle of ribbing someone and having a bloody fantastic time doing it. 

Robert had been gorgeous a month ago, but the carefree and cheeky air surrounding him was making him seem even more attractive: he was nearly reaching the adonis-heights of Ryan Gosling in how good looking he was becoming. It just so happened that Lee, who was sat on the other side of Mike, was also gawping at Robert and nearly catching flies with how big the gap was growing between his lips. 

Mike gave him an appreciative glance up and down, more than once over, and his eyes rested on Robert’s hand. Fingers interlocked with somebody else’s hand that was wearing a silver, wedding band. The owner of the fingers walked in attached to a dark-haired, stubbled, attractive man. If he squinted enough, Mike could convince himself that the dark-haired man looked like him. Maybe Robert had a type, but then Mike remembered that this was ‘Aaron’. 

The ex. 

Well, apparently not anymore. 

‘Aaron’ moved farther into the doorway and turned to face Robert. Smiling, their eyes fixed onto each other with such a forceful intensity that Mike was sure no wrench would ever be able to tear them apart from their shared moment. 

The mischievous glint in Robert’s eyes was magnified a hundredfold when he looked at ‘Aaron’. It was obvious in the way that they were talking that they were passing flirty, playful banter to each other: eyes arching up, smirks playfully sat at the corners of their mouths and - 

Were they actually swaying? God, that was embarrassing. Grown men swaying? But, as Mike tried the action on for size, focusing his attention on the two of them completely, it didn’t seem so cringey. 

It seemed sweet. Robert and ‘Aaron’ were sweet. 

When the joke had passed, their eyes were bursting with so much love that it was flooding over their eyelids and over-flowing into the pathway of every oncoming customer of the restaurant. 

Mike couldn’t help focusing on Robert, whose eyes were flickering between Aaron’s startling blue eyes (had anyone ever had such beautiful blue eyes before? He could understand why Robert was constantly looking into them) and plump lips (that were ready and ripe to be devoured). Robert’s were going backwards and forwards as they were talking, like a spectator at a tennis match, the conversation making his lips pull at the corners and forming into a smile until the dark-haired ‘Aaron’ grabbed onto the collar of Robert’s brown Barbour coat, pulling him into Aaron’s body until their lips brushed together. 

It was obvious from the way both men’s shoulders lowered at the kiss that it was heavenly, especially when it wasn’t just a quick peck but a succession of enjoyable kisses, if the way Robert smiled into them was anything to go by. Of course it should be heavenly: if you were going to do it in the middle of The Steakhouse in full view of everyone, it had to be pretty damn amazing. He was sure that if he strained his ears above the low drum of chatter and cutlery being scraped along plates, he could hear soft moans interspersed between the kissing of lips. 

Even though ‘Aaron’ had initiated the kiss, Robert grabbed onto his neck. Mike was sure Robert was steadying himself. But it was in that passionate neck grab that Mike noticed the silver wedding band that was embellishing Robert’s ring finger. Well, that meant that despite ‘Aaron’ moving a new boyfriend in, he and Robert had obviously resumed whatever relationship they had been in previously. Without no consequence to anyone else, obviously. 

Mike had dodged a bullet there. Blokes still hung up on their exes was not something he liked to deal with. It usually got messy and was normally something he had to speak to Gary about. The pug had tilted his head many times in confusion when Mike had discussed his love life and especially discussed the dreaded exes of the various men he’d had flings or relationships with. 

A waitress approached the loved-up couple, and seemed to be failing to get either man’s attention. When she finally did, after tapping ‘Aaron’ on the shoulder numerous times, leaving the two of them slightly embarrassed if their red faces and the side glances they were giving each other was anything to go by, they walked off to a table opposite the large one that Mike was on with his work colleagues. 

Miranda, who was sat next to him, nudged him in the ribs. ‘Mike, is that the fella you nearly pulled?’

He nodded. 

‘He’s fit. And so’s his fella. Looks a bit like you, actually.’ She fingered her hand through her long blonde hair that Mike was sure had been straightened a thousand times over, grooming herself. 

The waitress, who had seated Robert and Aaron, came over to ask for their order and the conversation turned to which steak they all fancied, 

However, Mike couldn’t stop his eyes resting on the couple later on in the evening while there was a lull in conversation. Their table was at an angle to Mike’s, so he could see everything they were doing: the heart eyes that they were giving each other as they sipped their pints to the way ‘Aaron’s’ foot slid into the small gap under the table and looped itself around Robert’s ankle. Both men displayed a smile towards each other as soon as their bodies touched. A smile that said: I’m blissfully happy and you’re my home. While their eyes softened looking at each other, he could see that they were flirting. Faces lit up, glowing under the restaurant’s lights and every action one of them did - like the way Robert’s head tilted to the left hand side, ‘Aaron’ tilted his to the right, so that they were a mirror image of each other - was in sync with their partner. They even drank their pints in sync. It was bloody sickening. 

The way that they were looking at each other reminded him of the looks that he had seen on countless films where the romantic couple were perfect for each other in every way and were making it blindingly obvious to the audience. Oozing chemistry spurted out of their pores that was only available for each other, chemistry that was creating a sizzling bubble surrounding the two of them. The only problem was that instead of it being fictional, something that some of Mike’s female friends’ relationship goals were based on, and he knew they were heading for a fall and heartbreak if they based their ideas on Hollywood’s output, Robert and ‘Aaron’ weren’t. They were real. 

They looked like they were in the height of their love and Mike was actually glad - relieved even - that he had side-stepped a night with Robert. Listening to him bleat on about ‘Aaron’ would have done his head in. Because Robert, the way he was smiling at ‘Aaron’, obviously listening intently to everything his husband (they must be husbands or at least engaged if the matching wedding bands was anything to go by) was saying, Mike knew Robert would have talked about ‘Aaron’ until the early hours of the morning and then some more. He knew that there would never have been any sex between him and Robert because there would have always been some heart strings attached to ‘Aaron’. Tying them up together. Intrinsically linking them in some way. 

In Mike’s own experience, you never looked at a person the way that Robert was looking at ‘Aaron’ and get under someone else so quickly. Robert was smothered in his love for ‘Aaron’ that he was obviously willing to declare it to the whole of the restaurant with a microphone and speaker. No, scratch that out. Robert was sparkling, so it meant that he obviously wanted to declare it to the whole of Hotten and even the Yorkshire Dales. 

Mike would have known ‘Aaron’s’ shoe size, favourite food, favourite film and inside leg measurements had Robert gone back to his. 

Hearing a potential shag discussing their ex to the nth degree was definitely a turn off. 

But the way they were looking at each other? Well, that gave him hope. Hope that one day he could play the romantic lead in his own romance. But those romantic notions wouldn’t be with someone like Robert because he was obviously a one-man guy, which was admirable. Just like it was admirable that they were in a committed relationship and neither had noticed the looks they were getting from other people, because they were too busy displaying heart eyes for just each other. Looks that were equal parts lust, intrigue and ‘I want me some of that type of relationship’.

**Author's Note:**

> Any comments or feedback would be greatly appreciated. :-)


End file.
